Blog: British Influences

As you know, the Olympics were in London this year. Their opening and closing ceremonies showed the world how much the British love their country and its culture. But while I was snacking on chips and gawking at the American swim team, I realized something: England has a huge influence over us. I’ve seen this even more through my YouTube experiences.

Do you ever watch YouTube? I do. All the time, and for more than just JB’s latest music video. I love watching vloggers (video bloggers). And almost every vlogger I watch is from the UK. They talk about everyday things or what they’ve been doing or review stuff. They get a lot of money, too. If a YouTuber becomes pretty famous and get a lot of views for their videos, YouTube starts paying them for bringing so many people to their site (think Jenna Marbles).

Some of the funniest videos are the pranks that they do. One of my favorite YouTubers, Jack Harries, who is from London, did a few hilarious videos recently: one where he and a friend (fellow YouTuber Sam Pepper) drove a little car into a crowd and started a dance party. Another where the two rode their unicycles everywhere.

Watching British YouTubers, you pick up on the lingo they use. Things like “cheeky”, which means flirty or troublesome; “reckon”, which they use as much as Americans say like; and “rubbish”, meaning garbage. I’ve also noticed some of their styles: they stack up bracelets, wear TOMS and girls wear profuse amounts of makeup. These styles have been popping up all over America, and soon their slang will, too. They are trendsetters for Americans, once the celebrities of London and Paris latch onto a fad, it slowly makes its way to the U.S.

People are following the styles of One Direction. They watch Tom Daley and drink tea and wear colored jeans and now watch British YouTubers. It’s a bit of a British Invasion. And I’m okay with that. I’m okay with the British culture affecting our generation. Because, from what I’ve watched on YouTube, they seem to be very tolerant of everyone, they are polite and they don’t really care what others think. In my opinion, our country needs a little bit of that.